Sent to the wrong war
by Sabre G
Summary: Ichigo, finally winning beating Aizen as his power fades he hears a voice call out to him offering him a deal so that he can keep his powers, what happens when accepting the deal sends him to a new world with its own problems?
1. Chapter 1

_Ichigo watched as the final Getsuga Tenshou cut through Aizen like butter cutting him completely in two and then watched as he fell to the ground. Quickly shunpoing to him to collect to Hogyoku he was shocked to see his body already reforming and seemingly 'stitching' itself back together then he felt his own power leaving his as his hair shortened back into its grown out orange state. _

_Just when he thought he power was about to disappear it stopped, then rose again. Ichigo looked down noticing the purple line or reiatsu seemingly coming out of a now standing Aizen... the Hogyoku, it was replenishing his power he could feel it rising again. Just when he'd got his hopes up to fight again shadows surrounded him blocking him from the outside world. _

'_all power comes with a cost, do you accept the cost of regaining your powers.' And sly voice asked, obviously female and didn't sound pleasant... but he had no choice he had to fight and to fight he needed power. _

'_I'll do whatever it takes for my power to return to me!' Ichigo shouted back determined to fight. The voice began to laugh and that made his blood run cold. 'You'll have the power to fight then Zangetsu and your hollow are yours to control again you can fight the war... but not this one.' The voice said before laughing again. _

_Ichigo suddenly felt himself falling the shadows around him began to change colour between red and black even blue at some points. The air around him felt different less potent in Reishi than the soul society but more than the living world. A cracking sound below signalled his arrival and he barely noted the mask forming on his face and how heavy it was to his other mask. _

_Below him he could see the ground miles below it wasn't anything like the place he just was... again he was falling again he noted that the mask was different... it was the same as when he fought Ulquiorra he hair was bellowing behind him and his horns standing strong in front. _

_A column of reiatsu shot from him making a blinding black pillar which glowed red seemingly shooting from the ground and visible for miles for all to see like a beacon but not one of hope. And then he landed a creator forming around him... he'd been tricked... no he'd been stupid and made a deal not knowing the costs... and now he couldn't feel Aizen anywhere..._

_A roar of rage screeched past his demonic jaws. 'I've been stupid! Why! I've failed everyone!' another roar left his bone jaws this time followed by a massive cero shooting into the air. _

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Aang was in a river with Katara and Sokka, Sokka was lounging on a giant leaf with his hair down and Momo on his stomach. Ever since leaving the general who'd tried inducing Aang avatar state Katara had been teaching him water bending every time they'd stopped on their way to Omashu.

"We've got a lot of ground to cover if we want to make it to Omashu today..." Sokka stated as he continued to float by them in nothing but his under wrappings. Katara looked at him before responding with. "Like you're ready to leave now naked man." He ignored her for the most part and then replied "Tch, I can be ready in two minutes." He replied lazily making no effort to get off his giant leaf.

Aang was about to ask what training he was meant to be doing but before he could an over whelming presence of power suddenly smashed into them forcing Sokka to try standing only to end up falling into the water and Katara barely managing to stand before collapsing to a knee Aang himself was finding the pressure hard and it was only to his air bending that was pushing to keep him up did he manage to stand.

Around them the colour seemed to fade, everything seemed to turn black and white and then just in the distance the only colour other then black and white stood tall shooting into the sky was a pillar of black which glowed red making the clouds that it had shot through seem red to... like clouds of blood which seem to warn everyone to run... like he wanted to... Aang was truly terrified of what was happening.

But.

"Appa! Pick us up we need to see what's going on, it seems like a sprit is angry and is going hay wire..." he was the Avatar and it was his duty to solve this and bring balance, no matter how much it terrified him...

It seemed Appa was having problems getting off the ground thanks to the overwhelming weight of the aura around them, after a minute Appa was able to drag himself to Aang's side as well as Sokka and Katara. Helping each other up with either air bending or water bending, which was also difficult when you can only move slowly, they managed to get atop Appa and then move towards the source of the aura albeit slowly and not flying.

After a few minutes the power finally seemed to reduce enough that colour started returning to the surroundings and the pillar of black and red dispersed, though best of all it was enough so that Appa could fly again, and so he did.

"If we continue at this speed we should arrive there in a few minutes, whatever it is, is still there, although the crushing aura has gone it's still abundantly clear it's there thanks to the amount of spiritual energy coming from over there." Aang stated as he passed out water to his friends who were still feeling the side effects from a few minutes ago.

"What do we do if we need to fight that thing? It could just paralyze us and kill us when we can't move if we piss whatever sprit it is off!?" exclaimed Sokka. Aang was already going over plans in his head for a way to sort this out quickly but it was hard when you don't know what the problem is.

He sighed. "I know that's why you two Appa and Momo will be staying back while I try fixing this." He told them quietly so they couldn't hear the fear in his voice. But Katara did, and she quickly made to protest. "Aang you can't face something like that on your own, you still haven't mastered the elements yet!" She retorted back.

Before she could continue or Aang answer Appa gave a growling like sound to them, each of them looking ahead they saw what the cause of the commotion was, and it just scared them all the more. Standing in a creator between multiple streams of water was a demonic looking figure with wait length orange hair and skull like face with to horns protruding in line with its eyes which was staring at them. Pale white skin spread across its body and Black think tribal lines spread from a hole in the centre of its chest. Fire spread across the ground all around him and scorch marks along the ground.

The face of the Sprit showed no emotion as it watched them land in the tree line keeping it's distance from him.

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Ichigo had final managed to get his reiatsu under control and kept his temper as calm as possible thanks to the soothing words of Zangetsu in his head helping him to keep his cool and think about what to do next. He'd come to the conclusion that he was in a different world from any he'd been in before, he defiantly not in the world of the living nor the soul society or Hueco Mundo.

He was also wondering why his Hollowfication had taken such a step, instead of just a mask he was a full blown hollow. He was thinking about how to release this form but his was having trouble thanks to not being able to keep him mind of where he is.

He noticed something flying towards him and he briefly gripped Zangetsu a bit harder in his clawed hand... then he noticed that it wasn't a person... no, it was a bull? A flying bull? He felt his head tilt slightly in confusion. 'A hollow maybe... not these no mask so it's not a hollow...' he thought to himself.

Then he noticed there was people on the bull flying towards him, 'maybe they can see souls, if so they'll be able to see me and maybe help me.' He thought in hope and so he waited for them to land and to see if they approach him.

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Aang knew if he waited too long then Sokka and Katara will come out of there shock and continue trying to convince him to let them go with him, so as they hit the ground Aang instantly opened his glider and shot towards the sprit before they could protest.

Within seconds the reached him and then nervously folded his glider away again. 'His not attacking me, so that's good... I guess.' Aang thought trying to think towards the bright side. The boy couldn't help but stare in fear at the black sword the sprit was holding in his hand.

"You're shaking." The dark voice of the sprit in front of him said bluntly... but accurately, Aang couldn't deny that his knees were shaking as well as the rest of his body. Quickly straightening himself out he spoke back.

"W-what's your name, and what are you doing here?" Aang asked his voice trying to sound confident but was still shaking. "Is there a problem that made you release that aura?" Aang continued.

"my names Ichigo, and for what I'm doing here I have no idea, the problem is I was sent here... against my will. Where am I?" the dark voice asked though it didn't sound evil, no it sounded like it was trying to speak softly.

'Against his will, He doesn't even know of the human world?' Aang thought curiously. "You're in the human world, I'm the avatar would you like me to guide you back to the spirit world?" Aang ask almost forgetting his fear as Ichigo seemed to be trying to be nice to him.

"Sprit world? You mean you can take me to the soul society?!... wait this isn't the world of the living, there's way too much Reishi for that." Ichigo said thinking maybe he was being lied to. Aang looked at him confused.

"Soul society? Reishi? What are you talking about I haven't heard of any of that before." Aang said taking a step back hoping not to have angered him. He saw Ichigo's hand grip the sword even tighter.

"He's not lying to you Ichigo." A calm voice said from behind Ichigo. Just like that a man seemed to form out of black mist and walked out from behind Ichigo. Ichigo looked up at his partner. "What are you doing Zangetsu, and he must know what Reishi is, I can feel a strong amount of reiatsu from him, probably around a lieutenants level so he must have knowledge on all that stuff." Ichigo argued to the manifestation of Zangetsu. Zangetsu ignored him and looked at the boy in front of him instead.

"Look at the markings on this boy, not something we've seen in any cultures we've seen before, human or soul. Then feel the Reishi in the air, nothing like any we've felt before. Boy, what's your name?" Zangetsu asked.

Aang was getting even more nervous by the minute. 'Now there's a second sprit?!' quickly regaining himself. "I'm Aang, I'm the avatar." Aang said to the dark haired figure. Zangetsu nodded then he continued. "Have you heard of Japan before, Europe, no? What about America?" Zangetsu asked.

"No I've never heard of these, are they somewhere in the earth kingdom?" Aang asked back. That seemed to satisfy Zangetsu as he turned back to Ichigo.

"I think I know what's happened Ichigo. It seems that we are in a new dimension, maybe a second world of the living that's in a different world like how the soul society is separate from the world of the living, maybe theses also a second world of the living separate to the one we live. If that's the case we need to find a way back, until then you should ask this boy for help in this new world." Zangetsu said and Ichigo nodded knowing that Zangetsu was probably right like he normally was. And with that Zangetsu dispersed into black fog and vanished again.

Ichigo turned to Aang. "Will you help me find my way home then, Aang?" Ichigo asked. But to his disappoint meant the boy seemed reluctant and took a half step back. "I would like to but... well from what I can tell you know nothing of this place and what's going on here, to tell you in short there's a war going on and it's sort of up to me to get strong enough to end it, I don't think I have time to help you..." Aang said then flinched back as if expecting to be attacked, but nothing came.

"I understand, I too have just come from a war in my world and it was up to me to finish it, though I was sent here before I could tell if I managed to win or not... what if I agree to help you with all my power, I'll protect you as long as you help me as well, I would only ask that you help me get home and help me adapt to this world." Ichigo asked then continued. "Please, I need to know what happened in my world, a lot of people were depending on me including my family." Ichigo finished.

Aang on the other hand was stunned, he was sure that this man was incredibly powerful after what he felt and that could help them to no end... plus it was his job to help sprits... and so slowly he nodded. He heard what he could only guess was a sigh.

Ichigo let out a breath of relief and quickly went to reverting his bankai back to shikai, but was caught off guard when he heard what sounded like water shooting at him, he quickly turned to see a spear of water headed towards him and Aang and quickly stepped in front of Aang. 'Looks like I'll be protecting him sooner than I thought.' Ichigo thought annoyed.

Quickly his instincts told him to try something new... so he did, he placed Zangetsu on his back and swatted the first spear of water away with his hand only to hear more heading towards him. 'the water is coming from the streams around me... I'll take them out then' Ichigo thought to himself then leaned his head forward and began charging a cero between his horns then shot it at the largest steam, the heat of the blast evaporating the water on impact and the explosion sending the water flying.

The creator that was left was huge and that was what he considered a weaker blast since he didn't use as much reiatsu as he usually would in a Getsuga. "You okay Aang?" Ichigo asked not turning around and keeping his guard up for anymore of the water.

"What are you doing!?" Aang shouted in rage pulling on Ichigo's arm to stop him. Ichigo turned to look at him with a tilted head. "I said I'd protect you so when I saw the water I considered it a threat... what's wrong?" Ichigo asked surprised as he pulled him arm from the boys grasp.

"That's no enemy that's my friend! She attack since she must have thought you were going to attack me!" he shouted them looked around franticly for his friend and spotted her in the tree line frozen in shock. He pointed to her and Ichigo looked at her and under his mask he frowned... again he'd made someone fear him... and he hated himself for it.

Ichigo quickly grabbing Aang by the shoulder and then using...'Sonido?' he thought to himself in confusion but brushed it off for the matter at hand. Quickly appearing in front of the girl with a burst of static and the releasing Aang shoulder pushing him slightly to her while he bowed his own head.

"I apologise, I thought you were attacking us." Ichigo said quietly before raising his head and saw the girl stepping away from him in fear. Aang seemed to finally recover from the burst of speed and he ran forward grabbing her arm and telling her it was okay and that she needs to calm down. Ichigo turned away 'I'm just going to be a burden to them aren't I... I'll probably end up scaring his friend off if I stay.' Ichigo thought solemnly

"Aang... I'm sorry for causing you trouble, I'll be leaving, thank you for the information about this world." Ichigo said before turning and walking away trying to sense anywhere nearby that he maybe able to get leads... then his thoughts turned to his mask and how no one would even try talking to him as long as was wearing it. Quickly reaching up putting one hand on his mask, if he couldn't will it away he'd force it away. Grabbing the mask though the eye sockets and yanking, hard, he tried pulling it off with little success.

Bringing his second hand up and also grabbing it, his back curls forward before shooting back with both hands pulling the mask away. black reiatsu started stepping from the cracks forming before finally with one last yank the back of the mask smash and his head shot though the back of the skull as he pulled his mask forward with his heads. Ichigo let out a sigh as he felt the hole in his chest fill and his hair shorten back to its new length he had since coming out the Dangai.

"Damn this mask, such a pain." He muttered to himself. Not seeing the shocked faces behind him as he continued walking away from Aang and towards what he could only guess was a city from how many people he could sense in that direction.

"Ichigo?" a confused voice asked form behind him. Ichigo turned with one eye raised. "is that you?" Aang asked confused. Ichigo realised that Aang must have thought that he really did look like that mask and all. He could help it he grinned.

"Yeah, that mask and transformation is from a darker part of my soul, what you see now it what I look like, I should probably say this now, I'm not just a soul I'm actually half human as well. I was a human but I needed to get stronger and ended up half human half soul. You really thought I was that ugly?" Ichigo asked with a small smile as he scratched the back of his head.

"Why didn't you take the mask of sooner then?!" Aang asked embarrassed that he was made to look like a fool. Ichigo shrugged. "I didn't know how so I had to force it off since I was planning on heading to whatever town is directly ahead of me, I doubt I would get many answers if I wore it." he said.

"You said you'd come with me so we could help each other." Aang said much to the surprise of Katara who was slightly behind him still shock at the... handsome man that had just come from the terrifying animal she saw. She quickly blushed. 'Why am I thinking his handsome?!' she screeched to herself.

Ichigo frowned. "I don't want to put a divide between you, I can sense there's people over in that way so I'll just head to them." Ichigo explained uncomfortably while pointing in the direction he could feel people. Then he continued. "After that light show they may come to me, like you did." Ichigo mumbled to himself in thought of how many people must have seen it.

Aang's blood turned cold. "Y-you're right, the fire nation must have seen it... no doubt they'll be coming to find you. You need to come with us even if it's only for a little while, if the fire nation caught you you'll be in incredible danger!" Aang said then pointed to Appa. "Get on Appa we need to get out of here!" Aang ordered, Katara quickly did what he said and began running only to be stopped when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

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'They're in danger for coming to see me it seems... I better help them get out of here then.' Ichigo thought quickly grabbing both the girl and Aang and shunpoing them to the giant bull like creature at supersonic speeds. Placing them in the saddle he closed his eyes, and sure enough if he concentrated hard enough he could feel people moving in on their position, it was hard to sense then the city he could feel since there was no way near as many people, he could only feel about fifty maybe a bit more. Pointing towards them he spoke.

"Around fifty men coming for over there, they shall be here in a few minutes." Ichigo said to Aang, in return Aang nodded. "We should get going." Aang said as he braced to fly Appa. Thought Ichigo had other ideas.

"I'll be staying, you need to get out of the danger zone, if these are the enemies I intend to make sure they don't follow us." Ichigo said jumping down from the creature named Appa not even taking notice of the new guy in the saddle with a fur creature in his hands.

"What?! Are you going to kill them!?" Katara asked furious that he could think of killing someone so easily. In return Ichigo look at her confused. "Of course not, I intend to put my mask on and scary the hell out of them with a few explosions. I wouldn't just kill for the hell of it." Ichigo said getting close to being angry at the women.

Quickly turning away Ichigo put his hand in front of his face, and just like he's used to the mask started forming, though this time covering his whole body back to the hollowed state it was a few minutes ago. "Hurry up and get out of here will ya." Ichigo said walking towards the men that were closing in calmly and pulled Zangetsu form his back and held it with one hand. Ichigo briefly heard the voice of another man shouting 'yip yip' before he heard the bull flying away.

"Wonder how powerful these guys are..." Ichigo muttered to himself but didn't have long before what looked like tanks rolled through the trees with armoured men in red marched at the side with the tanks, some riding what looked like rhinos, to his surprise there was a women walking in front of them all who looked scared for a moment before hiding it with a calm mask.

"And who would you be?" the women asked calmly, yet arrogantly. Ichigo stayed silent waiting for them to make a move and keeping his eyes on the streams of water that were still running with water. 'I'm ready for a water fight if they want one.' Ichigo thought to himself... then briefly noted how Aang called them _fire _nation... 'wait' Ichigo didn't have time to continued that thought because in the next second a whirlwind of blue fire mixed with orange fire from the tanks and soldiers was shot at him. 'shit'

Ichigo quickly covering himself with a wall of reiatsu which thankfully diverted all the fire away from him, though he could see them through the fire, which meant they couldn't see him either. For some reason when he tried to Shunpo it ended up in a Sonido while in this form, nonetheless he appear behind the women who was obviously in charge with Zangetsu pressed against her back.

"You're too slow to fight me." His demonic voice whispered sending a shiver down her spine, but before she could turn around again he Sonido'd in front of her swiping his leg across the ground tripping her up then jumped back as she flipped back up sending a cartwheel of blue fire at Ichigo which he swiped out the way with a slash of Zangetsu, much to her surprise.

Ichigo quickly charged a cero in his horns and fired it in front of one of the steam punk tanks sending id flying back into the trees and sending the rhinos next to it into a frenzy as they ran from the blast knocking over their own men and sent panic through all of the standing men causing them to retreat back as well.

Within a minute Ichigo had fired another two ceros and the remaining tanks making sure they weren't powerful enough to kill only to send the men flying, soon it was only him and two women in the open as the rest had retreated back to save themselves.

"Well I suppose it was rude to attack before stating my name, I'm Azula, this is Ty-lee. I ask again who are you?" Azula said calmly though Ichigo noticed that her hands where twitching with rage. Ty-lee looked at Ichigo in awe before she ran up to him though not to attack.

"That's a cool mask, is it part of your face or do you wear it to scare people?" she asked innocently causing Ichigo to smile at her, even after all he'd just done, she didn't fear him. He nodded to her politely while ignoring the other women.

"My name is Ichigo, and yes this mask is part of me though I do not wear it often." Ichigo said as kindly as he could with the mask changing his voice, though nonetheless the girls smile widened at his answer.

"It's so cool! And that's a cool sword to, you're so cool!" she all but squealed. Ichigo was incredibly tempted to laugh at how this girl was acting, it's like she'd never feared anything in her life and she acted like a child, calm and innocent in the face of someone who'd just made grown men run for their lives. With a small chuckle at the thought he replied.

"Thank you, I take pride in my... sword." Ichigo said avoiding calling it a Zanpakuto. Before they could continued their little chat wind started picking up around them and a loud yet dull roar sounded. The three looked up to see the big furry bull flying towards them, and Ichigo sighed when he saw the girl name Azula fire a series of blue fire balls at the furry creature trying to shoot it down, but much to everyone's surprise everyone of them suddenly exploded before reaching their target and as the fire cleared they saw Ichigo with Zangetsu in hand standing protectively in front of the flying bison... standing... in the air.

"I told you, you're too slow to fight me!" Ichigo growled. Down at Azula while she gaped at him in shock, Ichigo briefly heard a familiar squeal and looked down to see Ty-lee jumping up shouting 'so cool!' up at him.

"I-Ichigo? Erm... we came to pick you up..." Aang deadpanned and Ichigo just nodded before Sonidoing back down and picking up Azula by her collar and throwing her in to the forest to join her men and ten bowed his head slightly to Ty-lee before disappearing again and appearing in the saddle where he let out a breath of fresh air... though it sounded more like a growl with his mask on.

Soon the bison was far enough out of range that he could remove his mask, which seemed a lot easier than the first time. Ichigo looked around while they seemed happy that he was in his human form they still didn't seem comfortable with him.

"I'm Sokka, what's your name scary demon guy." Sokka said trying to make to best of this situation, to his surprise Ichigo smiled at him. "My names Ichigo, nice to meet you, timid guy who's shaking." Ichigo retorted as he noticed that although Sokka was trying to be confident, he was shaking. Sokka instantly tried to deny it but was cut off by Katara's laugh.

Katara quickly slapped her hands over her mouth when she realised they heard her and blushed from the smile Ichigo gave her, luckily he didn't seem to notice. But Sokka did and was about to say something when he was interrupted by Ichigo.

"So what's Appa? Is he like a flying bull or something, I've never seen anything like him before from where I came from." Ichigo asked as he stroked the fur of said animal. "He's my flying bison!" Aang chipped from the head of Appa.

"Better question what are you?" Sokka asked Ichigo, in return Ichigo frowned. "I'm a human, well half human, the second half of me is part shinigami, what is shown in my sword and the other half hollow which is shown by that form that seems to scary everyone." Ichigo answer truthful. "So I'm what's called a Vizard." Ichigo finish as he looked to the horizon thinking about back home.

"S-shinigami... that translates into d-death god." Sokka muttered and also drew the attention of Aang who climbed up to the saddle. Ichigo nodded since he was well aware of what shinigami meant. "It can also mean soul reaper, also shinigami have a Zanpakuto which means a 'soul cutter sword' I'm half shinigami since my father was a shinigami my mother a human. Aang's already seen my Zanpakuto's sprit when we spoke, but this sword is his true form." Ichigo explained. Then held out his oversized butcher knife to them.

"Meet Zangetsu." Ichigo introduced then looked at Aang with a frown. "From the reaction given this world doesn't have shinigami or Hollows does it?" Ichigo asked disappointedly and Aang nodded with a frown as well.

"So that also means to sprit world here is different from the soul society what I know..." Ichigo mused but everyone heard to sadness in his voice. Again he turned to Aang. "Aang tell me, do you think I will be able to get home? Not matter your answer I will still help you should you need it since I will have nothing else to do while I'm stuck here." Ichigo asked while he stood and turned his back to them all waiting for the answer.

"I-I'm sorry Ichigo, I don't know of any way to get to other dimensions, I don't even know if it's possible but I will try and help you, I'll ask the other sprits in the spirit world as well to see if they can help me. I will not be able to promise you anything." Aang said truthfully and Ichigo nodded before setting on the wall of the saddle facing away from everyone as he looked out over the skies.

"Where are we headed now?" Ichigo asked wanting to change the subject. And they understood. "We're going to a place called Omashu, we are going to find Aang a earth bending teacher there." Katara responded softly, even if she was uncomfortable with him she could sympathize with him.

"Earth bending, is that similar to what those guys could do with fire and you with water?" Ichigo asked curiously. Katara perked up at that response. "Wait you didn't even know what bending is yet you stayed to fight them?!" she all but yelled at him. He shrugged.

"the way Aang explained it you were in danger, and it was my fault for drawing you guys to me so I wanted to hold them of so that you could get far enough away." Ichigo explained. Much to their shock.

"How did you fight them, with just that sword?" Sokka asked wondering it there was a technique he should now about when fighting fire benders. Ichigo looked at him. "I shot what's called a cero at their tanks, the same thing I used to blow up that stream earlier, it was weak enough not to kill them but strong enough to send them back to the forest. The rhinos panicked and trampled their own men and I was just plain faster than their flames making it easy to dodge. The men ran away in fear while those two girls stayed the one that shot at you was very hostile but the other seemed like a kind girl, well she didn't fear me so that was good." Ichigo summarised.

"What about when you fly? I was sure you was using air bending!" Aang called out. Ichigo seemly stepped of form the side of the bison and showed them how easy it was for him to fly by flying beside the creature for a few moments then hoping back on the saddle.

"Nope just using my reiatsu to solidify I platform beneath me allowing me to stand and techniques called Shunpo and Sonido for my high speed movement, it's simple for shinigami to do." Ichigo explained amused by their awed faces.

"So know you know what I am, tell me what's all this bending and why do you call yourself the avatar. Ichigo asked and for the rest of their trip they sat and explained to each other what hollows where and what benders where as well as the avatar. Ichigo took the information well since he'd seen fire bending and water bending already.

Soon enough night came so they set up camp in the woods next to a lake; Sokka and Katara had fallen to sleep while Aang sat by the fire with his lemur Momo, Appa laid on his side with his tongue hanging out of his mouth and soft snores coming from him.

Ichigo stood idly at the lake... thinking about if he should stay with this group or not, it was clear that they still fear him and he didn't want to burden them anymore than he already has. He sighed which didn't go unnoticed by the avatar.

"What the matter Ichigo?" Aang asked standing up and walking closer to his new companion. "Do you really want me to stay travelling with you? Katara and Sokka both fear me, and I hate myself for letting the innocent fear me but I've found it inevitable lately." Ichigo asked while he watched some frog with horns jump into the lake.

"What do you mean lately, are you referring back to your other world?" Aang asked and in which Ichigo nodded. "As I said before I'm part hollow, I never chose to be but it was either I learn to use these power or they would take over my body, and the chances are my loved ones would be attacked by me if I ever lost control so I had to tame these powers which I did." Ichigo started.

"They made me stronger and I need the strength to fight these beings called Arrancar's so that I could protect my friends. But even then I proved to be weak and... Well I had a hand puncher my chest and I bled to my death, but soon a friend of mine came and resurrected me, ad instantly I was forced to fight again, this bastard named Grimmjow, he was stronger than me so I had to use these hollow powers to fight back, and doing so I scared the friend that had just saved me, she feared me..." Ichigo stopped thinking about how to phrase the next part.

"By the end of the fight she seemed to finally see me as myself again, but again she was kidnapped and taken from me. When I got to her to rescue her she was being guarded by someone even stronger than Grimmjow, his name Ulquiorra the same person who had just killed me a few hours before. We fought equally for a little while, but then he stopped playing and unleashed some of his power and completely destroyed me in every way, my most powerful attacks did nothing, even with my hollow powers, I didn't give up, I didn't have a choice but to fight and when he showed his full power I knew I was dead. The friend that saved me before watched as a cero was blasted through my chest and I died again, twice in a single day, by the same person." Ichigo continued not looking over at Aang and if he did he would have seen the face of sadness, but Ichigo didn't want sympathy.

"Her powers couldn't bring me back to life, while I was dead one of my other friends called Uryuu tried fighting Ulquiorra while Orihime tried saving me, he was beaten down quickly. And then my body began to move again, but I wasn't in control of it, my hollow powers turned me into a full hollow, the form you've seen as my hollow powers. While my body fought it showed no mercy, like a true hollow and when I was about to kill Ulquiorra Uryuu stopped me saying I would be a human anymore, my hollow powers just impaled him with Zangetsu and turned on him instead. Orihime and Uryuu fear me, the second time that day when my friends fear me and the second time I died." Ichigo said letting it all sink in.

"When I finally regained control Ulquiorra was in the middle of dying from the injuries I had given him and there was nothing I could do but watch him die, that was the only time I'd ever killed anyone, my friend was okay after we healed him... after that I went through a lot of training in this place called the Dangai and gained full control of my powers so my friends and the innocent wouldn't have to fear me, yet still they do." Ichigo finished and felt Aang's hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry to hear that, I know what you mean, you want the people you wish to protect to feel safe and instead since you have hollow powers instead of feeling protected they fear you. But I think that when they understand what you're going through or went though then they would feel safe. You never gave up on them even after they feared you, instead you worked to fix it, that is truly admirable and I think that once Katara and Sokka understand you a bit better they won't fear you." Aang reassured, though Ichigo gave no reply for a few minutes.

"You should go to sleep Aang, you're still in a human body you need sleep, I can go days without sleep if needed while I'm in my soul form. I'm going to stay up a little longer, maybe have a look around here." Ichigo said quietly as he began walking along the bank of the lake, Aang nodded knowing that Ichigo could use some time alone.

"See you in the morning Ichigo." Aang said and made his way to Appa opting to sleeping on his fur without a sleeping bag. The young avatar was already tired so when he got comfortable he drifted of to sleep quickly with Momo on his chest.

No one noticed the teary eyed Katara with her back to everyone so they didn't see that she was still awake. She'd heard the full conversation and now she could help but feel badly for how she acted towards Ichigo... it sounded like he'd been through hell so his friends were safe. She needed to apologise to him... he was trapped in this world and can't get home to protect his friends and she was making his imprisonment here even harder.

With that thought she sat up and looked around noticing that Aang and Sokka was asleep and quickly jumped out of her sleeping bag and put her boots on and went looking for Ichigo, it didn't take too long to find him and he eyes widened in shock at what she saw.

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Aang just left and Ichigo was feeling tense after their conversation he looked into the water it seemed mostly clean, defiantly clean enough to swim in... And it may be just what he needs at the moment. With that thought in mind he undressed and got in the water leaving his clothes on the river bank to keep them dry. Everyone was asleep and it was the middle of the night, so he should be alright to just bathe here for a few minutes.

He walked into the deepest part of the water so he could stand and nothing would be... exposed. He'd left Zangetsu with his clothes stabbed into the ground. He used the water to wash himself, since he'd been here he could tell that they weren't as technologically advanced as his world so he figured that this would be as good a time as any to get washed.

The water was incredibly relaxing, he could pretty much feel his stress being lifted, that was until there was an 'eep' quickly turning to see what the noise was his eyes locked with someone who should have been asleep.

"Erm... hey Katara." Ichigo said nervously then he realised that he was naked and quickly dunked his body under the water so only his blushing face was showing. Katara wasn't doing much better, she averted her gaze and tried to form a sentence, but when she did what she just saw seemed to be burnt into her memory. Her blush just kept intensifying.

"Ichigo, do you normally go bath outdoors naked?" she blurted out still looking away. She heard him scoff. "please this is the first time I've ever bathed outdoors... and well I didn't have much choice... one set of clothes and all." She heard him say and she could tell she was just as embarrassed.

"Keep facing that way, I'll grab my clothes and get dresses, one sec." Was all he said before she heard him getting out the water. "Wait, I'll go grab you something so you can finish bathing, give me a minute, I'll be right back." she said before jogging off back to camp.

She rummaged through the spear clothes and grabbed some wrappings for him and quickly got changed herself into her water gear, which was a short cropped top which had no sleeves and uncovered her stomach, her under wrappings and a skirt covering her down to just before her knees.

Quickly making her way back to Ichigo she found him in the water again his whole body submerged leaving only his face remaining out the water, suppressing a giggle at his actions she threw him the wrappings and turned around. When he was done she joined him in the water much to both of there embarrassments.

"I don't mean to be rude... but why are you joining me?" Ichigo asked as she walked up to him, then he noticed where her eyes where. He looked away when she looked up at him with saddened eyes.

Katara couldn't believe her eyes, his body was riddled with scars, a boy around her age to have this many battle wounds is just depressing, she could she scars showing people have cut down on his shoulders and some showing places he'd been stabbed. But what upset her the most was the circler scare in the middle of his chest as she remembered him saying about getting a cero though his chest killing him.

Her and reached out and touched the scar which had killed him, he flinched back and looked at her questionably. "Is this the scar from when Ulquiorra killed you?" she asked quietly and he looked at her in surprise.

"I wasn't asleep, I heard the whole story... and I'm sorry... I didn't mean to be scared of you, it's just I've never seen anyone like you and we've had to be on guard for a long time now since the fire nation is after Aang. I didn't know what type of person you were but I do now... forgive how I've treated you, stay with our group... please." She said locking eyes with him hers was filled with unshed tears of regret and sadness while his where filled with determination.

"Thanks you will never know how much it means to me that you tried understanding me, there's nothing to forgive you for though you did nothing wrong... and as for filling on guard, don't from now on this little group of yours will be safe as can be." He said and a small smile played at him lips.

She smiled back then spoke again. "Can you tell me about yourself, I want to learn more about you." Katara asked softly. And Ichigo nodded but not before smirking. "only if you show me this water bending of yours, I've only seen a bit of what you can do and I must say I'm curious." He said and instantly had to jump back to avoid a tendril of water from smashing into him.

He looked up to see Katara smirking back at him. "You asked for it I won't hold back." she chimed at him teasingly before sending spears of water which froze into ice at him, though to her shock the shattered when they hit his fists, she kept shooting them towards him and he kept punching them into dust.

Changing her tactics she tried freezing the area around him but he instantly slammed down his hands shattering the ice and jumped out the water standing on the air just a few inches off. "What's with all the ice, I'm cold enough as it is." He muttered while rubbing his hands together. Katara laughed.

"Well will continue this another time, I want o hear your story now." She said and took a seat on the lakes bank soon joined by Ichigo how laid down with his hands behind his head. "Well do you want me to start from the beginning?" Ichigo asked and received a nod.

So that's what he did, he told he about his life as a human even how his mother died, he told her about his sisters and his father. He spoke about how he got his powers and how a girl named Rukia saved him and his family. As he got past all the time in the human world he told her about the invasion to save Rukia and his battles there, and then how Aizen had turned out to be betraying them the whole time. He explained about how when he got back he had trouble controlling his body and eventfully meet the other Vizards that helped him then how almost instantly after his friend was kidnapped, after he'd finished and told her about his fight with Aizen which ended up sending him here she looked at him with saddened eyes.

"That why my power went berserk when I first entered this world, the frustration of failure and how I don't know if I won or not... if I didn't win I only hope that someone else did it for me, if not all those who were counting on me..." he didn't finish his sentence When he felt Katara hug him from the side.

"You didn't fail I know I believe in yourself... don't beat yourself up over something you don't know." She said soothingly and she didn't pull away for a few minutes until she felt Ichigo embrace her back.

"Thanks but enough about me, I want to hear about you now." He said as he looked at her, he felt like she knew everything about him but he didn't know a thing about her. She looked at him with a smile and nodded.

She spoke about how her mother died, which upset Ichigo greatly that both their mothers died protecting them, nonetheless she told him about the war and what's she's done on her adventures with Aang and Sokka, including the invasion of the north pole which wasn't too long ago. Ichigo like the sound of her tribe a small close knit community.

"You'll have to show me your village and tribe one day, I'd love to see it there." Ichigo said after she'd finished and she smiled and nodded her response. Ichigo briefly noted that the sun was coming up and after Katara looked to what he was watching she gasped.

"We've spent the whole night out here, we should get back and try and get some sleep since we need to be moving in a few hours." She said standing up and was about to start jogging back but she felt a familiar touch on her shoulder, sending a shiver down her, but not an unpleasant one.

"Well I think I'm faster than you so leave it to me." Was all Ichigo said before shunpoing to the camp. They had both got changed into their usual grab and quickly got ready to sleep, well she did.

Ichigo on the other hand sat on top of Appa and watched them all sleep, he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep now and if he did he wouldn't wake up for a while. So instead once Katara had fallen asleep he went and relit the fire so they would wake up to the warmth of the flames. He noticed that the fire needed some more logs, so he went to one of the trees with Zangetsu and cut it down in a single fast stroke.

Catching the tree with one hand before it hit the ground he lowered it slowly to the ground so not to wake anyone up. Once it touched the ground he sent Zangetsu into a flurry of motion cutting it in to sizeable pieces for firewood and had a lot left over that they could take with them for next time they camp.

The fire blazed healthily and after a few hours Ichigo had packed the camp apart from the sleeping bags and got it all ready to be airlifted by Appa once he awakes, he figured he'd saved them a good half an hour once they woke so that Katara could sleep a little longer.

Hours past quickly and Ichigo had to admit he was proud of his fire it showed no signs of withering and it blazed powerfully. He briefly noted that the lemur named Momo had woke up then sat by the fire only to fall asleep again. Ichigo called out Zangetsu for a talk, since he didn't feel like going into his inner world.

Again in his usual fashion Zangetsu appear as a black mist that formed into his normal form. "What is it Ichigo?" Zangetsu asked voice showing no emotion as usual. Ichigo looked up to his most trust partner.

"It's about going home, do you think we can?" Ichigo asked quietly not turning his away from his fire it he continued poking it with a twig which made it shimmer every time he poked the burning wood. Zangetsu remained silent for some time thinking about how to answer his wielder.

"I will not lie to you Ichigo, I believe that the Hogyoku created a bridge between the two worlds to shoot us across, I have no idea if the bridge would be there for good or just longer enough to get us through trapping us on the other side, but I think it may be the latter. It's always good to assume the worst so that you're prepared for anything whether it's good or bad." Zangetsu said still showing no emotion.

Ichigo took his time to reply thinking over Zangetsu's words he knew Zangetsu was right, but it was hard to admit. He sighed. "Thank you Zangetsu I'll try, we'll help the avatar and this group for the foreseeable future, we'll help but an end to this war, just like how we should have put an end to our war." Ichigo said carefully. Then noticed Aang was waking along with Sokka, though Katara seemed dead as a rock.

Both boy's woke only to see Zangetsu and Ichigo looking at them from across the fire, Aang blinked at Zangetsu's appearance with and as for Sokka, he squealed and few he boomerang at the new figure and Zangetsu calm swiped it out of the air sending it into the ground making Sokka jump up and run to pick it up again.

"Zangetsu, you should probably return now." Ichigo said not even bothering to look at Sokka's actions. Zangetsu merely nodded before vanishing back into mist. "Good morning Aang how are you?" Ichigo asked kindly, while completely ignoring the owlish look Sokka had on his face.

Aang on his part yawned heartedly. "Yeah but we need to get packing, I'll wake Katara." He said but was stopped by Ichigo's reply. "Let her sleep a bit longer, she didn't get much sleep, I packed for us to save sometime so she could get a bit more sleep." Ichigo replied but his actions proved in vain when he heard Katara's voice.

"Thanks Ichigo, but Sokka's little squeal woke me up, thank you for the thought though... wait did you even sleep?!" she suddenly shouted at him making him and the other boys go wide eyed. Ichigo shrugged. "Couldn't sleep so I made the fire and packed instead." Ichigo replied casually, which he regretted when he had to dodge ice spears that were fired at him.

Jumping to his feet to dodge he shouted back at her. "What the hell Katara!" sounding pissed off... then he realised she was even more pissed off then he was. This time opting to punch the icicles instead so he could hold his ground.

"You need sleep too! You can't just worry about me when you've been up longer, and don't give me all that 'you can stay up for days if needed' crap!" Katara shouted at him. Aang and Sokka looked on in shock as they saw the interactions between the two.

Aang clear his voice causing both Katara and Ichigo to break out of their argument. "You can both sleep for a bit while we make our way to Omashu." Aang said trying to find the middle ground and a fair end; he was that avatar after all. Both Katara and Ichigo huffed, both choosing not to.

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They made their way over the mountains and soon Omashu was in sight, but not what they expected. Ichigo looked at it confused before speaking.

"Yo, if this is an earth kingdom city, why has it got a flag of an open flame instead of I don't know a rock or something." Ichigo spoke out and his answer came in the form of Sokka who looked pale. "It shouldn't have, that's the emblem of the fire nation... which means they took over Omashu."


	2. Chapter 2

**Here chapter two, hope you enjoy it let me know if there's any improvements to be made.**

**a few thing i want to talk about first though, some of you were asked if Ty-lee would be paired with Ichigo as well, well i didn't intend for it to be that way but if you want that to be so then i may make the pairing IchigoxKataraxTy-lee but for now i will keep it IchigoxKatara**

Ichigo looked on with a frown, they were meant to come to this city to find the king who would teach Aang earth bending, Katara had explained the importance of the avatar and his ability for all four elements.

"That means Ba Sing Se is the only earth kingdom stronghold left." Sokka mumbled as they looked at the city from a distance, Aang seemed the most troubled... Ichigo knew that this Bumi was a close friend to Aang so he could understand the distress.

"Aang, if you want I can go in and cause a distraction drawing all the fire nation troops to me, you three ride Appa low to the ground so they can't see you and come in the opposite end of city and search for this Bumi. Once you find him fly over me to show me you're done, then I shall leave the city using Shunpo, I'll be gone before they know it." Ichigo said, he knew how important it was to know your friends where okay. Before anyone could speak Ichigo continued.

"Or I could try and take the city back from the fire nation, I'm sure there are still people wanting to fight back, while I'm busy you could rally them for one attack from the rear of the fire nation who are dealing with me at the front, we could push them out the city and take it back for the earth kingdom." Ichigo said still trying to come up with other plans that could end it quicker. Ichigo turned to see all three of them staring at him wide eyed, he shrugged.

"This isn't my first invasion of a fortress, and I've already seen what they're capable of, I'm positive I could take care of them, I'd have to take my time and hold back on my attacks to make sure I don't accidently kill anyone and I'll be dodging with Shunpo a lot, which will tire me out eventually meaning you'd have to hurry and find this guy within 3 hours maximum..." he stopped for a second before continuing. "... unless I use my bankai, then I'd be able to hold out the whole day probably, so you should be able to take your time, if you don't show within two and half hours I'll go bankai." Ichigo finished. He'd already told them about bankai when he talked about shinigami so they knew what he was talking about.

Aang finally snapping out his awe looked at him in confusion. "Why would you do this?" Aang asked. Ichigo in turn shrugged with no emotion playing on his face. "I know what you feel like, you would have gone in with or without us, and I don't blame you I've been and done the same to save a friend." Ichigo said making Katara smile as she realised that he was referring back to what he'd told her about and his invasions to save his friends... against all odds.

"Yeah, but you had at least a some friends with you even if you did split up, one of us will need to go with you to back you up." Katara said confusing the other two boys at how she would have known that. Ichigo turned away and pointed to one of the bridges leading into the city.

"That's those girls from yesterday, looks like they got here before us, she saw me leaving with you and I don't want any of you fighting against someone like her alone, I won't be fighting alone, if need be I'll manifest Zangetsu to help me simple." Ichigo explained while pointing to the convoy lead by three tanks which seemed damaged.

"Can you do it Ichigo?" Aang asked hopefully. Ichigo nodded. "Find Bumi and ask him if he wants me to take back the city or not I'll be waiting at the north entrance. Once you see the front gates blow up wait half an hour then fly in low and get in the city from the opposite end, tell Bumi that to take the city back would be child's play with us all working together." Ichigo said before beginning to walk off only to be stopped by Katara who ran up to him.

"Thank you Ichigo, just promise to be safe okay, if you get hurt try and find me and I can heal you with my water bending... and try not to exert yourself, you haven't rested properly." Katara said before giving him a quick hug and the jogging back to Aang and Sokka who both looked at her open mouthed. Aang was feeling jealously build up inside him and Sokka was just shocked she could be so open and close to someone so dangerous.

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Ichigo walked up to the front gate, he saw around twenty men looking down at him with confusion written on their faces. Ichigo waved at them, which only increased their confusion. 'Tch, they probably thought no one would dare attack them... too bad for them.' Ichigo thought with a sigh, quickly checking behind him he could see Appa waiting for the signal.

Grabbing Zangetsu with one hand and casually swinging it horizontally a wordless Getsuga formed and shot forward easily cutting through the defences sending the gate cumbering in half along with a large portion of the wall sending smoke and dust bellowing into the air, checking behind him he saw waiting there. 'I'll take out on the gate for half an hour then Appa and the others will start to move, once they move around the city I'll advance in the city.' Ichigo thought to himself so he could keep an eye on them as well.

Instantly fire nation troops ran from the rubble and charged him with pikes and spears some already sending fire balls fly at him which he effortless swiped away with Zangetsu shocking all of the fire nation troops.

All the troops, probably around fifteen, got into a line in front of him and the all at once took stances and jumped forward a step and kicked out the other leg each of the one sending out a large fireball. Ichigo braced for the wall of fire shooting towards him by standing still and flashing his reiatsu a second before the flames hit which diminished all the flames at one leaving only embers to fly past him.

Ichigo took his time and one by one he immobilised each of the men. Guessing that it had been about half an hour he glanced and noticed Appa had just took off and began flying. He walked slowly over the rubble once he reached the top of the remains of the gate he flared his reiatsu clearing the fog and dust around him revealing the small army waiting in front of him.

The three tanks that he'd fought against before was here, he could tell from the mangled fronts and scorch marks, though they weren't alone since this time around twenty tanks were lined in front of him, in front of them around a hundred fire nation men and in front of them three girls.

"One man?! One man did this!?" a voice of a nervous soldier called out and was instantly smacked on the back of the head by another soldier next to him. Ichigo ignored the army and faced the three girls, two of whom he'd already met.

Ichigo looked at the three women. "Oh, it's you again. And there's someone new here as well, I'm Ichigo." Ichigo introduced himself to the new women. Then once the other two realised who it was Azula's eyes winded and Ty-lee jumped happily cheering. "Ichi's back, and without his mask!" everyone was dead silent until Ichigo chuckled.

"Hi again Ty-lee fancy meeting you here." Ichigo said to her again ignoring Azula, much to her annoyance. Ty-lee didn't seem to notice and quickly introduced Ichigo to the third girl with the name Mai.

"Enough Ty-lee, he's our enemy, treat him as such. Everyone fire!" Azula shouted in rage, she would not be made a fool of a second time. At this command every single troop thrust their fist forward shooting streams of fire and the tanks joined a second later also shooting a continuous bellow of fire and then Azula's blue flames joined the onslaught. While Ichigo just stood his ground.

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Katara had stolen Sokka's pirate scope from him and watched Ichigo as he effortlessly tore down the gate and played with the troop that came running out. She kept seeing Ichigo looking over his shoulder and she realised that he's check to see if they'd left yet.

Sokka and Aang could only just make out what was going on, on the bridge and to be fair it shocked them that a single man could destroy so much with the swing of his hand.

"How can you two be so friendly to a monster like him, most of all you Katara, you hugged him?!" Sokka shout at the other two. Aang was the first to respond with narrowed eyes. "He's not a bad guy, and if you're forgetting he's doing this for us so we don't have to fight, he's doing this to help us not to make us fear him... he's a nice guy if you tried to talk to him." Aang said but even he was curios to why Katara hugged him.

"He's been through hell and back, now he's stuck here away from his loved ones yet he still trying to help people, and I swear if you give him a hard time Sokka I will never forgive you, his had enough pain in his life." Katara said coldly. "And it's been half an hour let's move." She continued.

As they took off she looked through the scope again seeing Ichigo glance at them before walking into the city. And as they got a bit higher, they saw what waited for him on the inside and what they saw caused Katara's blood to go cold. It was what could only be described as an army, and in front of all of it Ichigo stood calmly.

"There's no way he can hold against that many fire nation, if he doesn't run he's going to be killed!" Sokka said in shock Katara was about to shout at Aang to turn and help Ichigo but that was cut off then she froze from what was happening.

They all watched frozen in their place as the fire nation shot a hell storm of fire at Ichigo, who didn't even move and was completely engulfed in flames. Katara cried out his name in despair thinking her new friend had just been burnt alive, but as the fire dimmed they all saw Ichigo standing in the same spot his arm covering his face while then other was holding Zangetsu on his shoulder like nothing had happened.

If I wasn't for Appa they wouldn't be moving as they stared in shock at Ichigo, he seemed to be untouched, but when Katara looked in the scope she could see he had burns along his arm he was using to cover his face. And as for his face, he didn't look happy.

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Ichigo looked at them in anger. 'Bastards that hurt.' He growled to himself. "Now I was only talking yet every time I seen you Azula you cut me off from talking to Ty-lee and try and kill me, it's getting annoying." He growled.

"A burn... not even a bad one... that's all he got from that attack?" Azula whispered weakly looking at how unproductive such a powerful attack was. She was about to order another attack but before she could Ichigo disappeared and reappeared behind the tanks and then flickered in and out of sight as he moved around a super high speeds and then stopped In front of them again as the tanks he was behind suddenly either exploded or fell to parts seemingly cut in half.

"I told you, YOU'RE TO SLOW!" Ichigo roared as all of the tanks became immobile or were completely destroyed. Azula watched in complete horror and that horror became rage as she turned to Ichigo and fired wave after wave of fire and was join by him men.

Mai and Ty-lee went off to the side to get out of the cross fire since none of them could fire bend. "What is he?" Mai asked as her usual face showed fear and awe. Ty-lee on the other hand looked like a kid in a candy shop as she watched the scene with a wide smile.

"Isn't he cool!" she chirped. "We should try getting him to work with us so I can spend time with him and he can tell me how he got so cool!" Ty-lee continued sounding happy as can be as she watched like a kid with a new toy.

Ichigo looked at the happy face of Ty-lee before turning back to his enemies. 'That Ty-lee really is something else, she doesn't even seem to have any fire bending powers, yet she here on a battlefield happy as can be...' Ichigo thought to himself amused.

"Azula, how many more troops you got in this city, or on route?" Ichigo asked calmly. He wanted to make the fight last until Aang and the others were ready to leave, but with this many it wouldn't last more than half an hour... he shouldn't have destroyed the tanks so soon... but he was angry...

"Why would I tell you information like that?" she spat, but was grateful that he wasn't attacking so she could have time to think on what to do next. 'A division of three hundred men and fifty tundra tanks should be close by... but someone needs to get past him to get out the city to ask them for help...' Azula thought thinking what options she had.

"You should tell me because if you haven't noticed I'm only playing with you as it is right now, I want to drag this on a bit longer so if you want to go get some back up I won't stop you, you'll need all the help you can get. I'll give you half an hour to grab all of the men, tanks, rhinos, whatever don't hold back you'll need every last person at your disposal to beat me. Times ticking." Ichigo said confidently.

'I need to draw in every single troop in the area, in and out the city. That way if we decide to take the city back it will be safe for a longer period of time since there'll be no one around to take it back.' Ichigo thought to himself wanting to get rid of all the enemy troops in one attack instead of having to hang around and pick them off.

Without question Azula ordered five men to run and grab the division of men outside the city and ordered a section of men to grab every fire nation man in the city. She knew that attrition wouldn't work on this enemy since as soon as he got tired he'd just wipe them all out so they can't exploit his tiredness... leaving only the option to grab as much firepower as possible and try and overpower him quickly while they have more men.

Ichigo stood there watching as five men nervously ran past him to get back up, and Ichigo did nothing to stop them, Azula stayed standing in front of her men to make sure he didn't try anything. Ichigo stared them all down showing no fear to them.

With all this tension no one noticed the young boy in earth kingdom clothes down one of the alleyways watching the whole scene before running off to find his father.

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Katara, Aang just landed in the opposite side of the city and where already looking for something metal where they could be holding Bumi. Just as planned here was no guard in sight most likely off fighting Ichigo.

"Hurry, we need to get this done as fast as possible so I can go heal Ichigo's arm, he got burned after that last attack and it may make it harder for him to fight for as long." Katara side as they ran down the empty streets.

"You're concerned that he got a burn, and not worried about how he was able to withstand becoming ash?" Sokka asked rhetorically before a thought occurred to him. "Wait if they want to keep Bumi away from his bending, wouldn't it make sense to not only keep him in metal but also away from any ground of rock, which means his not underground and I doubt they'd risk keeping him in a normal cell on ground level... which means he'd need to be high up in the air." Sokka exclaimed before pointing up and a scaffold in the middle of the city and no doubt the highest point of the city.

Grabbing the scope Katara looked at the scaffold and gasped. There swinging side to side was a metal coffin hanging from a rope with Bumi's head sticking out with his usual grin. "Sokka you're a genius let get going!" Katara said while making for a run, though as soon as they were about to start the ground beneath them opened and they fell down.

Landing with a thud Katara shot up with her water canister already open ready to attack. But prove unnecessary when they saw that they were surrounded earth kingdom men and women, most likely earth benders.

"What's going on?" Aang asked stepping forward towards the earth benders. "Where the resistance, we felt the explosions and figured there's fighting going on so we brought you here to see if you'd want to help us in retaking our freedom and out city!" the leader said shouting to his comrades at the end.

"Actually we weren't the ones fighting, our friend is, he 's drawing in all the fire nation troops to the front gate so that us three can go and find Bumi and won't have to fight, he says that he wouldn't mind retaking the city... and he already told us what to do if Bumi did want to retake it..." Aang told them.

"Ha, Bumi wanting to fight, you must be mistaken once the fire nation attacked he just gave up before we could even attack, he said to me he was going to do nothing!" the leader exclaimed. Much to the groups shock... why would Bumi give up?

Before they could continue a small boy came running through the halls and stopped in front of the resistance leader. "Father, I was just at the front gate and there's this guy fighting the fire nation! He was unbeatable! All of them fired at once and he was barely hurt and I watched as he took out a division of tundra tanks in like a second!" the boy shouted and continued rambling about what he saw.

"Then when the tanks exploded to told the fire nation he's giving them half an hour to gather every single fire nation soldier to him so they can fight, so right now they're all just having a stare down as the wait for reinforcements!" the boy finished. The resistance was silent, the boy had never lied to them before and has all ways giving them good Intel of the fire nation troops but this was... unbelievable.

"Ichigo's sure keeping up his side of the mission..." Sokka muttered. Then the leader turned to them. "This is the friend you were speaking about!? How is he holding off against so many soldiers, is he an earth bender?" the leader asked.

Aang shock his head. "No he's not a bender but he is immensely powerful, we need to find Bumi do these underground tunnels lead to that scaffold?" Aang asked and received a nod and so Aang, Katara, Sokka and the resistance leader headed off to Bumi to see what to do next with the plan, take the city or just escape?

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Ichigo looked the city; if it wasn't for all the smoke it would be a very serene city fitting in with the mountains that surrounded it, too bad it filled with these fire nation troops now that are no doubt using it as a base of operations for their conquest in the earth kingdom. Ichigo noticed that Azula hadn't stopped glaring at him yet.

"Have I got something on my face?" he asked mockingly making her eyes widen at being mocked she then shot a blast of blue fire at him, though he calmly stepped out the way, only aggravating her all the more.

He briefly noticed that Ty-lee was trying not to laugh and Mai had a small smirk playing at her lips. Ichigo stretched out his senses and noticed that Katara and Aang seemed to be heading for the highest point of the city, quickly glancing over there he couldn't tell why but he presumed that Bumi was over there.

Then he noticed the army closing in behind him... he tried guessing the number and frowned when it seem like a few hundred men. He could only imagine the amount of tanks as well. He smiled, this must be their whole invasion force, if he takes them all out then the rest of the kingdom would be safe.

He briefly wondered if he should just take them all out quickly and meet up with Aang and the others so he could meet this Bumi. Then he smiled, he knew that Azula was incredibly prideful from what she's shown so far.

"Azula! Your other army has arrived." He informed confusing Azula since he didn't look behind him to know that they were there. "So know I give you a choice that you must make right now." Ichigo continued as his smile widened.

"In front of all these men I will tell you I can get even more powerful then I am now, so I ask you, do you want me to heighten my power to face your army or would you prefer me to stay in my weaker form." He asked loud enough for all the men in the area and Ty-lee and Mai as well. Everything went deadly silent.

He knew that if she said she wanted him in his weaker form then she'd be made to look like a coward and a weakling since it was only one man, but if she said she wanted him to go into a stronger form then she wouldn't be able to beat him and make her look like a failure and arrogant. He smirked when he saw her face pale and mouth drop, she must have realised what he was doing.

"Or third option, you surrender this city and we don't have to fight." Ichigo added thinking he could use this as well. The silence was deafening and the tension suffocating then saw her face harden and she looked down to the ground in silence.

"I want you to... use all of your power... don't hold back." she said barely above a whisper. Though in the silence everyone heard her, then they heard Ichigo laugh.

"I didn't say anything about going all out, I'll still be holding back but I will be more powerful then I am now, you've seen the form that I take when I'm at full power." Ichigo said determined to make her angry. And it worked since he could hear her growling at him.

"Ban-Kai!" Ichigo shouted and the air around him twirled picking up dust and obscuring him from view and a few seconds later the dust exploded outward showing Ichigo in his new coat and hold his new sword.

"Bankai, Tensa Zangetsu." Ichigo introduced then swung it behind him horizontally sending a wordless Getsuga which intercepted a fire ball that was meant to hit him from behind creating an explosion in the air.

"Looks like they're here then..." Ichigo muttered as he turned to see the army had made its way onto the bridge and had already started shooting a volley of fire balls from the tanks at him and where quickly joined by fireballs from the army in front of him, easily with his higher speed and power he cut threw and destroyed every fireball before it hit him.

Deciding to win this quickly he flashed in and out of sight and every second more and more fire nation troops fell to the ground unconscious as the back of their neck were chopped with the back of his hand or they were punched hard enough to push every bit of air of their body. Ichigo was a flurry of movement as his literally threw troops into one another.

For the fire nation it was like fighting an invisible enemy as their spears would suddenly burst in to splinters of wood and the blades and the tip shatter before the man holding the spear was either thrown of knocked unconscious. After just minutes the hundred men in front of Ichigo turned into no more than ten still standing... Well running to join the other army behind him.

Azula watched as all the people around her were immobilised and thrown away, in just minutes one man had taken out more men then it took to take this city. She watched as he reappeared on the bridge in front of the reinforcements before disappearing into the crowd of people, throwing some of the side of the bridge and destroying tanks by cutting them into pieces.

Then shooting back into the air above them and waiting, he let them fire volleys of flames at him, and once enough fire was sent towards him he sent a Getsuga down at it creating and explosion as they collided filling the sky with a black cloud of smoke which lingered in the sky for a second before it was seemingly cut in half as a massive Getsuga shot out vertically running in to the bridge and then cutting into it before it continued across the length of the bridge making the bridge completely unstable as it started to wobble thanks to the long cut running down the length of it and the amount of men each side of the cut.

Then Ichigo flew down the bridge low enough to hit anyone he passed with a swift kick or punch, again creating disorder among the army and he wasn't surprised to see blue flames being shot directly at him making him smirk as he cut through them making them disperse into embers. Landing directly behind her he dodged a whip of flames aimed for his head.

"See this is what you pride gets you, defeat. I'm going to be helping the earth kingdom for awhile so why not call of the war; you must be able to see that with a nation of earth benders as well as me and the avatar, you're out matched." Ichigo taunted as he ducked under her kick.

"I will not! And as for the avatar, his days are numbered; I've taken it upon myself to take care of him whether or not you're with him. Don't under estimate me, I will not lose to the likes of you!" she growled punching the air making a fire ball shot out, but it seemed to hit nothing as Ichigo disappeared again to continue attacking the army. She just growled as she ran to where she saw the most chaos in hopes of getting a lucky shot.

After an hour of the massacre Ichigo stopped and landed on part of the city wall and looked down, on both sides of the wall was bodies just laying on the ground surround by fire and remains of tanks, he'd deliberately left the three girls awake so they could see how much Azula's choice to let him increase his power was the wrong choice.

"You give up yet?" Ichigo asked with a smile, he'd enjoyed himself in this and managed to help people, everybody wins!... well apart from the fire nation. Ichigo smiled when he saw Azula fall to her knees at the sight before her, even she herself looked tired to the brink of collapsing. As Ichigo was fighting her men she had never stopped trying to hit him as well as that other woman Mai who never stopped firing arrows and throwing knives at him.

All Ichigo did now was watch as Mai ran to pick Azula and try retreating back into the city but then Ichigo appeared in her way. "You lost, so, I don't think this city belongs to you anymore." Ichigo said and point to the gate and watched as reluctantly Mai dragged Azula away out the gate since she knew she had no choice but to. Ty-lees just jogged to catch up to them while waving to Ichigo and Ichigo politely gave her a wave back.

Ichigo stretched out his senses and realised there were a lot of people just looking down on him from higher up in the city, then he realised Katara, Aang and Sokka was among them, quickly making use of Shunpo he went towards them. Appearing next to Katara within seconds.

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When he appears a few people jumped back in shock as he just seemed to appear out of nowhere. There was silence for a few seconds then the cheering started, the people in the green clothes all started clapping and cheering for his victory, he could only assume it was the earth kingdom people. He smiled nervously until he was grabbed from the side by Katara who had a worried look on her face.

"Here let me heal these wounds." Was all she said before she made the water float around her hands and she reached out to his cheek where a series of small cuts where from when Ichigo Shunpo'd threw clouds of splintered wood and it cut his face in a few areas along with his arms. He felt his face redden when he felt her hands healing his cheeks and he watched as she healed the burns on his arm straight after.

"You shouldn't be so reckless; you could have been hurt badly if you weren't careful." She said softly yet at the same time her tone showed she wasn't joking. Ichigo turned his attention to everyone who was looking at him with smiles on their faces.

"Hey." Ichigo greeted and stay still as an old guy stepped forward. He looked like a crazy person since his eyes had a crazed look in them and his hair was messy. Nonetheless Ichigo didn't say anything.

"Now this is a surprise I was expecting to have to wait until I had an opening before we fought back but it seems all my waiting was in vain since I wasn't needed to drive out the fire nation. Now let me introduce myself I'm Bumi the king of this city. And you are Ichigo are you not?" Bumi asked as he inspected Ichigo. Ichigo himself was speechless, this was Bumi? Stepping back from the creepy man Ichigo nodded.

"Now tell me Ichigo what are you, you are obviously not a bender and no normal human has that type of power, so what are you?" Bumi asked the grin never leaving his face. Ichigo glanced at his friends who just shrugged.

"You right no normal human has my powers, but I am a human. I'm what's called a Vizard." Ichigo said wanting to avoid calling himself a shinigami in front of these people. Deciding to change the subject he continued.

"None of those men down there are dead, they're all unconscious or immobilised, so I don't know what you want to do with them, prison maybe? But if I was to guess I'd say that was quite a big force leading me to believe it was an invasion force for more cites so I wouldn't recommend just letting them go..." Ichigo said sharing his thoughts and to his relief the king nodded at Ichigo.

"Quite perceptive aren't you? Yes they were a strike force to capture villages and towns on the way to Ba Sing Se, you helped the whole earth kingdom today, may I asked which nation you're from?" Bumi asked getting in Ichigo's face much to Ichigo's discomfort. Some of the people around them looked like the wanted to separate the two but chose not to intervene.

"None, I travel a lot and ran into the avatar who offered me to go with him so I accepted." Ichigo growled as the man wouldn't leave him alone. And to his annoyance the old man snorted in laughter before backing away and turning to order some men to gather and imprison the fire nation. Another man stepped forward.

"I was the leader of the resistance group and I want to say thank you Ichigo, this city owes you a great debt, is there anything we can do to help you?" he asked much to Ichigo's relief since this guy seemed used to the kings behaviour.

"Well as of right now I have this one set of clothes and they got a little burned up so is there anywhere I can get some clothes?" Ichigo asked calmly before dropping his bankai showing his Shihakushō had a few burn marks of it and the left sleeve completely burnt off.

"No problem, come with me I'll take you to our best tailor and armourer to get you something fixed up." The man said grabbing Ichigo by the shoulder and leading him away. Ichigo looked over his shoulder to Katara with a pleading look as if asking for help. And to his immense pleasure she nodded a jogged to catch them up.

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Ichigo was in his new clothes and he had to admit they looked better than his usual it looked like his normal Shihakushō apart from it wasn't as baggy and hugged his body more but the best part was the missing sleeves, he'd known that the sleeves get damaged the most so now he didn't have to worry about replacing his whole Shihakushō just for his sleeves. The tailor made him a few extras as well so they last him longer and told him if he needs new ones to come and visit her and she'll make him some more.

Strapping Zangetsu to his back and thanking the woman him and Katara left the small store. "Well these should last me a little longer than the last set of clothes." Ichigo mumbled walking with Katara back to where she told him Appa was waiting.

"I hope so, you do realise that we can fight as well you know, we're not useless... you don't have to fight alone." Katara said seriously while looking at him to watch his reaction and to her surprise he smiled a bit.

"Yeah I know, but I wanted the next few days to be quiet and to do that I figured wiping out as many of them as possible would make them wait a while before attacking any place, you know since they need to replace all the tanks and men... thinking about it they didn't use any rhinos this time... must have learnt from what happened last time." Ichigo thought idly and Katara nodded in understanding.

"We are going to make our way to some other villages to look for Aang's earth bending teacher, we'll be flying a few days before we reach the first one." Katara said and Ichigo quickly spoke up. "His teacher was supposed to be that Bumi guy wasn't it?" Ichigo asked with a raised eye brow in confusion.

"Bumi said Aang needed someone who listens and waits for a teacher, so we looking for him now." Katara explained and Ichigo sighed. 'it seems that it's going to take Aang a long time to get all the elements if he can't find a teacher... then we need a fire bender to teach him as well, that's probably going to be the hardest to find.' Ichigo thought to himself.

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A few days past since the liberation of Omashu, they had stopped in several villages along the way and was surprised when Ichigo was stopped and asked questions in most of them. Apparently word travels fast in this world and most of the earth kingdom villages know about an orange haired and wearing black and carrying a sword the same size as him. All the people whether military or civilian asked him questions about if it was true he retook the city single handedly and asked if his speed was just a rumour among other things asked.

He didn't know how to answer them but luckily Katara or Aang would answer for him... but answered the truth, unfortunately. Sokka on the other hand tried to tell people how he located the imprisoned king with just his intelligence... though he didn't get the attention he wanted much to his aggravation.

Again they were flying but this time over a swamp, according to Aang it would take half a day to pass according to modern maps, instead of being on guard Ichigo choose this time to sleep with his head resting on his very own sleeping bag, Courtesy of king Bumi, Ichigo slept peacefully having no interest in a damp old swamp.

... That was until he shot up and looked around much to everyone else's confusion, apart from Aang who seemed to be in a trance as he slowly glided to the ground. Katara looked at him in confusion and Sokka quickly regained Aang out of his trance.

"It seems like something is calling us down..." Aang mumbled and in everyone's surprise Ichigo spoke up. "Yeah it felt like it wants to show us something." Ichigo responded drawing everyone's gaze to him though he didn't notice since he was now stood looking down at the swamp.

"How can you two feel it but we can't?" Sokka asked to which Aang responded. "Sokka... Ichigo is half a sprit that makes him like me, although without the reincarnation and bending powers. The avatars body is fused with a sprit called Rava, so thinking about it, it would make sense Ichigo would be able to feel flows of sprit energy." Aang surmised coming to that conclusion before then thinking to himself. 'Does that make him an avatar?' Aang quickly brushed that thought aside since the next instant a tornado appeared beside them and engulfed them.

Ichigo quickly jumping to the centre of it and blasting out his spiritual pressure dispraised it but noticed that Appa had still lost altitude and crashed sending the members on top of him flying. Ichigo was about to Shunpo to them but smelt something sweet in the air and quickly felt himself losing consciousness and falling to the ground as well.

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Katara watched as Ichigo blew away the tornado but she knew that they were still falling, and she watched as Ichigo lost consciousness and started to fall with nothing to soften his landing his landing. She called out his name in hope to awake him from his slumber... but it was to no avail. Then there crash impacted sending Aang, Sokka and Katara flying away from Appa and Momo.

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Once they landed the flying bison and lemur was nowhere in sight nor was Ichigo. Reluctantly they moved through the swamp looking for their friends and again failed and set up camp for the night both Sokka and Aang fell to sleep eventually, but Katara couldn't she was too worried about Ichigo.

Lately she and Ichigo have become closer, so much so she was willing to say she had a crush on him... a big one, both Aang and Sokka had noticed as well. Sokka wouldn't stop questioning if she was crazy for befriending and being so trusting of him after what she'd seen him do... Aang on the other hand was quieter about his disapproval and sometimes looked at Katara with and upset gaze while he thought she wasn't looking and glares in the way of Ichigo, though he would never be vocal about it or let it get him openly angry.

Katara knew how Aang felt about her thanks to Sokka pointing it out to her. She knew it would hurt Aang to say, but she could never return his feelings, he was too childish and she couldn't see herself being able to put up with that outside of travelling together. With a deep sigh she closed her eyes and tried to sleep.

But sleep was soon thrown out the window when she felt something clawing up her leg, instantly she let out a loud 'eep' and opened her eyes to see veins circling her leg and instantly dragging her away and she also saw her friends being dragged into different directions.

Eventfully being able to cut the veins with water bending see set out looking for her friends and after what seemed like hours of searching she came up empty... well until she saw a familiar figure in the swamp just ahead of her and her mind froze and eyes swelled with tears.

"Mother?" she asked weakly before running to the still figure standing in the water just ahead of her. but when she reached it and grabbed her mother's shoulder, it was reviled to be nothing other than a stump of wood.

Losing all the strength she held in her legs she fell to the ground and sobbed, all her hope being crush and rubbed in her face as if mocking her.

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Ichigo opened his eyes with a groan and looked around his surroundings only to find himself at the foot of a tree surrounded by water. As the events of what happened before he lost consciousness, he sighed before getting up and stretching out his senses...

His eyes widened before swinging his head around taking a good full turn to look around. Again he tried stretching out his senses only to come to the same problem. 'What's this power? If feels like reiatsu is coming from all these tree and plants... and it's so dense thanks to all the trees, it's stopping me from sensing Aang or Katara...' Ichigo thought annoyed before trying to think which way the rest of the guys landed but coming up blank since everything looked the same no matter which way he looked.

Cursing to himself he began to walk to way which felt most right to him, forward... so doing that he continued to walk until he found an opening in the trees and it seemed to be the only part of the swamp that had ground instead of water to walk on. Stepping on to dry land Ichigo looked around, and again everything seemed like the same direction, nothing to different in any direction all just more muddy water and overwhelming trees.

"Ichigo?" a familiar voice asked behind him making his eyes widen before turning around instantly only to lock eyes with Karin. She was stood there with teary eyes looking at him almost angrily, Ichigo was about to respond but froze when he heard another voice, again behind him where he'd just been looking.

"Brother?" Turning around not being able to hide his shock when he saw his other sister Yuzu being held protectively by his father Isshin, who glared at him while Yuzu chocked up and cried into her father's chest.

"So this is how it ends? You abandon us with Aizen while you run away and enjoy yourself in a safer place? You left your sisters for dead!" Isshin shouted in rage. And it felt like a stab through the chest, ten times worse than Ulquiorra's cero. "Kurosaki-kun?" the sound of Orihime asked from beside him, not even thinking as his mind shut down at the pain going through him.

He saw Orihime, Chad, Uryuu, Nel, Rukia and all of his shinigami friends either looking at him in confusion or with a hurt gaze. "You didn't mean to abandon us did you?" the clearly hurt voice of Orihime asked as tear streaked her face.

"No I didn't mean to, I'm coming back!" Ichigo shouted in defence as he failed to hold his own tears back when he turned back to see Karin now with her father as well looking away from him with obviously betrayal on her face.

"I didn't mean to leave! I didn't want to, I'm so sorry!" Ichigo shouted dropping to his knees looking at them. He could protect them, he ran off making a deal to gain his powers, he left them for dead while he made new friends... he replaced them... only to solidify his thoughts a calm and calculated voice popped up next.

"You really think Aizen left them alive? He was immortal Ichigo, and you left him with us while you left us to die so you could gain power, is power that important to you?" Urahara asked. Standing directly in front of him looking at him with disgusted eyes, while Yoruichi refused to look at him opting only to face away from him.

"...I'm sorry..." Ichigo's weak voice whispered as he then saw them all disappear into different objects or swamp gas... again, even now he lost them. Collapsing to his hands and knees, letting to tears silently fell onto the ground and Ichigo didn't make a sound as he let his friends and families words sink in... He'd failed them... let them die... while he'd been in another world helping new people.

Feeling a hand on his shoulder he looked up to see Zangetsu looking at him with sympathy evident on his frown. Taking his companions hand Ichigo picked himself up though his head still hung, all things considered Ichigo looked... well dead. The life had left his eyes and his head numbly hung down not having the energy to move himself.

"Ichigo, there's a sprit at work here; they are playing with your mind. They want to provoke you for some reason; right now you need to know that, that wasn't your friends or family, just illusions. Don't succumb to despiser now, if you do you'll never see them again Ichigo." Zangetsu said which seemed to help.

"Abandon your fear, don't back an inch, now Ichigo advance! Never stop! If you retreat, you will age. Don't be afraid, or you'll die." Zangetsu said with the same strength he did the first time, making Ichigo look up at him though Zangetsu wasn't done. "Remember those words? You let them help you before, now again let them help, face this world and beat it, then we can go back home, if you retreat now you'll never see them again. Now Ichigo, Advance! Together we'll get back to our world and we'll protect them just like we always have." Zangetsu said turning away before dissolving into mist again.

Ichigo stood to his full height and rolled his head back so he was looking into the air, with a small smirk on his face.

"Damn old man, you never let me drown in self pity, you always come and help, not always with your power but with your words. Damn, I feel weak, thank you Zangetsu." Ichigo said his eyes flashing blue for a second before he closed them with a sad smile.

Facing forward again he walked, determined to find the sprit who fucked with his memorise, then make him pay. Shooting into the sky, still moving forward he Shunpo'd around for miles looking for his friends and this stupid sprit who thinks he can mess with him.

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Katara had just reunited with her brother and Aang, after talking a few minutes they all found out that they had seen someone they know... apart from Aang who doesn't know who it was he met someone he didn't know. Almost instantly after that they were attacked by a swamp monster, which proved to be challenging since it just regenerated at getting hit but eventually she and Aang managed to take it down.

And now they were following the man whom had just been attacking them as he took them to the middle of the swamp. When there he spoke to Aang and helped him understand how to swamp is one living organism and how it was the same for the rest of the world, even if they didn't act like it.

They sat there as Aang 'searched' for Appa and Momo by placing his hand on the tree but just when he pulled away a dark shadow blocked out the sun from above them, instantly Sokka readied his boomerang, Katara her water and Aang simply looking up.

Above them perched on a branch high above them was a hawk, but not a normal one, no this one was the size of Appa... and then some. Golden feathers mixed with some dark brown ones covered its body and it outstretched wings... then faster than they could track it fell from the branch and swooped down circling the massive tree before landing directly behind them and its wing folded in covering its chest.

"Before you leave, avatar, Let me introduce myself, I'm Alkom. This is my swamp and my domain." The hawk surprisingly spoke in an ancient and old voice. The giant hawk completely ignored Sokka and Katara for the moment and even the swamp man started backing away looking like he wanted to run away. But Aang just stepped forward with a determined look in his eyes.

"I'm avatar Aang, is there something I can help you with?" Aang asked but he knew sprits can be tricky to work with. The hawk leant forward and lowered its head to Aang's face and tilted its head to the side in question.

"What's the purpose of the avatar again?" Alkom asked which was obviously was trying to prove something, though Aang didn't back down. "The purpose of the avatar is to keep order and balance in the world." Aang said confidently and in return the hawk nodded and moved his head away from Aang's face again.

"I thought so. And did I mention? Nothing can escape the gaze of a hawk in its territory... not even the past." Alkom said mysteriously as it turned to the other humans before they realised what he meant.

"You are the one responsible for the visions." Katara breathed and then Aang spoke. "Meaning that he can see our pasts, and if time is an illusion and he was able to show me my future, it means he can see our futures as well..." Aang said as he narrowed his eyes. 'This one sprit knows everything about us, even what we don't yet know.' Aang thought dangerously.

"How cleaver, but of course I knew what was going to be said, and I know the rest of our meeting, I'm just here to make sure time moves as it should... and I must say, I'm amazed at what I've learnt today when a certain shinigami entered my domain, and by doing so allowing me to see his past and future... quite the enigma isn't he?" Alkom asked carefully and watched Katara tense.

"Ah yes, I'm not the only one that knows his past am I, young girl?" the hawk said turning to Katara who looked like a deer in the headlights. "He told you everything about himself, although he left out details like how he received those wounds you saw, so many wounds, so many battles... so many memories." Alkom continued as he watched the group for their reactions, ignoring the fact that the swamp man had run away by this point.

Both Sokka and Aang looked at her in shock. "He told you everything, that's why you're so close to him? He could have just been lying to you!" Sokka shouted scolded her, before slapping his hands over his mouth realising he was in the presence of a powerful being. Aang just looked at her sadly before looking back to Alkom who seemed amused; of course he was he already knew everything that was going to happen.

"Seeing memories and hearing them are to completely different things though, I see memories in detail, I have seen everything this boy has gone through and honestly it scares me, more then I'd like to admit, this boy is stronger then you could imagine, and has felt pain more than any mortal. Died twice only to continue fighting, yet he didn't give and only became stronger, and he shows no signs of stopping his growth." The hawk now sounding more amused than before, you could practically hear the grin on his beak.

"So avatar, now I know your role is to keep the balance, I will ask you one question. Is the world balanced if he's in it, the one that in a world of people more powerful than any single sprit in this world, still stands above the rest?" Alkom asked challengingly to the avatar. Katara was about to shout her protests at the idea that Ichigo was bad in any way shape or form, but was stopped when Sokka grabbed her arm to pull her back from her mid step forward towards the hawk.

"What's the point of this question, you already know what's going to happen so why don't you tell me." Aang asked trying his best to avoid the question. "I can see two different futures one happy one and one tragic one, both depend on your actions and as long as you remember not to let your personal feelings affect your choices well be for the best, that's as much help as I can give you in the form of words." Alkom replied instantly.

"In the form of words, what do you mean?" Aang asked suspiciously and in return to hawks wings shot out to both sides and curved surrounding their fronts in a semi circle formed by his wings. And a white orb surrounded them making it seem that they were in a white dome and stopped them from seeing anything to do with the swamp.

"I can help you answer in the form of his memories, I'll show you them and you can decide whether to accept him or not." Alkom said before he seemed to step out the dome leaving only the three teenagers standing in nothing but whiteness.

Soon that changed when they were on a river bank in what seemed to be a city, like nothing they'd ever seen before, all the homes seemed professionally made and a bridge stood just in view which seemed far to advanced to be seen in any of the four nations. It was raining heavily and a small boy with orange hair was walking along with a beautiful young woman both holding hands. It took them a moment to realise that the boy must be Ichigo and the women... his mother?

Katara's blood went cold when she remembered what Ichigo told her happened to his mother... on a rainy day... by a river.

"This is Ichigo's world, it's very different to ours and much more advanced, and yes that small boy is Ichigo Kurosaki. Today is the beginning of what made him who he is now. This is his mother's death." Alkom's voice rang out all around them.

**yes, next chapter will mainly be about Ichigo's past but I'll try and keep that bit as short as possible so we can continue with the rest of the story, for those wondering it will mainly be following the events and time schedule of the cannon but i will be making big changes to it overall. **

**Thanks for reading! **


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